Call Of Duty: WWII PC Beta Analysis Shows 60 Hz Netcode Improvements

Call Of Duty: WWII just wrapped up its multiplayer beta, and YouTube’s Battle(non)sense has analyzed its netcode with fairly positive results. There’s 60 Hz gameplay on dedicated servers, but the game’s lag stats are somewhat troublesome.

Call Of Duty: WWII aims to offer vastly improved network performance over its predecessors; titles like Infinite Warfare transferred data at just 20 Hz between client and servers. With more frequent updates, players on console and PC should expect greater fluidity across the board. Because 60 Hz is generally the standard by which most competitive multiplayer shooters perform, the baseline code is primed for peak performance.

That being said, WWII’s lag stats do show some signs of buckling. Here’s what the test concluded:

• 64.5 ms average damage lag
• 67.5 ms average gunfire lag
• 118 ms average movement lag

While the first two stats are only slightly behind popular netcode standards like Battlefield 1 and Overwatch, the movement lag number is much higher than it should be. That high threshold for delay is precisely why some beta players felt the test client was operating below 60 Hz, even though it was working within those parameters the whole time. Since we’ve only experienced beta netcode, this is something that could feasibly be tweaked and improved for the final game.

Should you be experiencing network difficulties, Sledgehammer has created a series of icons to help identify the problem. As seen in the diagram below, separate symbols exist to point out high latency through jitter, high latency through ping and general packet loss. If understood, these icons are a nice way to resolve temporary issues.

Something a bit more permanent, however, is Sledgehammer’s decision to stick to using peer-to-peer protocol for voice chat. This won’t be a huge deal for most folks, but streamers using headsets may risk the exposure of their IP addresses. In other words, if a skilled hacker wants to mess with you, the P2P connection through voice makes all players much easier to trace.

Minor shortcomings aside, Call Of Duty: WWII should offer a superior multiplayer experience to its predecessors. As long as the movement lag kinks can be ironed out in time, 2017’s Call Of Duty just might be the smoothest competitive shooter the series has seen to date.

Call Of Duty: WWII comes to PS4, Xbox One and PC Nov. 3.

What do you think of this netcode analysis? Are you glad to see Call Of Duty: WWII is actually running at 60 Hz? Tell us in the comments section!